Traditional — also called American Traditional, Old School, or Sailor Jerry — is the lineage we grew up looking at. Tight outlines, a tight colour palette (mostly red, gold, green, black), and the original tattoo motifs: tigers, eagles, daggers, swallows, panthers, anchors, hearts. It's tattooing that doesn't try to look like a print or a photograph — it commits to being a tattoo.
The reason it's lasted a hundred years is the same reason a good road sign is readable from across the street. Heavy outlines and simple fills mean a traditional piece reads cleanly the day you walk out of the shop, and it still reads cleanly twenty years and a hundred summers later. The bold outline is what holds it together when the colour eventually softens — and it will, that's tattoos.
In Auckland CBD, we keep a small, well-loved flash wall of traditional designs you can claim same-day or next-week. We also draw custom pieces in the style — bring us a reference or just a vibe and we'll riff a sheet for you. We work in classic spots: chest plates, forearms, calves, hands, necks. We don't shy away from a bold tattoo.
